cultured foods

Many modern recipes rely on tomatoes or lemon juice to give borscht its refreshing, acidic flavor. This recipe gets its tang the old-fashioned way: by using lacto-fermented beets. Served hot, borsht makes a hearty winter meal. But it’s also great in the summer, when I prefer to eat it cold with a little plan yogurt mixed in. This soup is even better … Read more

People seem to fall into two categories: they either love beets, or they hate them. Ever since I was a kid, I have fallen squarely into the “love them” category. I didn’t think it was possible to improve on them. But then I discovered lacto-fermented beets and found that it was. Beets are back in season here, so it’s time … Read more

I haven’t done a Fermentation Friday in a while, so I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite ways to eat sauerkraut: in a grilled Swiss cheese on sourdough bread. I guess you could say it’s kind of like a Reuben, but without the meat, sauce, or heartburn. Rye sourdough is optional; you can also choose whole wheat … Read more

This post is a continuation from Part 1, where I outlined the first few hours of the sauerkraut-making process. Here, I talk about the first week of fermentation. Within 24 hours of chopping and salting the cabbage, it had already expressed enough liquid to nearly cover itself: You can see in the photo above that some of the cabbage pieces … Read more

I never ate cabbage growing up. Maybe it’s because cabbage in a consummate winter vegetable, and we lived in places where the growing seasons were long and winter was more of a blip than a season. My first real introduction to cabbage happened in my first few hours as an exchange student in Germany. I had barely slept in the … Read more

In many parts of the U.S., it’s still possible to get fresh apple cider at your local farmer’s market – but it won’t last long. There are two traditional ways to make cider last longer: making hard cider and making vinegar. Making these things can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Here is my simplest apple cider vinegar method, … Read more

“You can make wine out of anything but a rock!” So says Appalachian winemaker John Bulgin in The Foxfire Book of Wine Making, and my experience says he’s right. Being the frugal person I am, I’ve never been fond of paying beaucoup bucks for beverages. So when I’ve wanted wine, I’ve made it.* In spring, I’ve raced my neighbors’ lawnmowers … Read more